Call recording in the E1 stream

You run a legacy hybrid PBX, the city trunk is an E1 channel, and implementing call recording is a costly task. There is also a need to record analog FXO lines.

A call-center wants to analyse customer requests but has no way to? You run large ad campaigns across various fields, yet still not enough customers? Sales flat or growing only slightly? All of this can be solved by introducing call recording — the topic keeps growing in relevance and our clients ask about it very often.

The task is easily solved with our Alvis-GW-2E1 E1 gateway and an external Elastix server. Elastix can be deployed as a virtual machine on an existing virtualization system. In effect, you only pay for the Alvis gateway and setup of the recording system.

The Alvis gateway is inserted in-line on the city (PSTN) E1 stream going to the PBX. Elastix is installed on a separate server (virtualization is possible). Alvis passes E1 synchronization from the PSTN provider to the office PBX. All incoming calls from the E1 stream are sent to Elastix over SIP tagged "came from PSTN E1". Elastix connects back to Alvis over SIP, simultaneously activating recording with built-in tools. Seeing the "came from PSTN E1" tag, the gateway sends the call on to the PBX E1 stream.

Elastix is a universal communications server that combines an Asterisk-based digital PBX, a mail server (Postfix + RoundCube), IM (OpenFire — Jabber XMPP), a fax server (HylaFax) and collaboration tools: a calendar integrated with the PBX for automatic voice notifications, a phone book, two CRMs in the interface (vTigerCRM and SugarCRM), an integrated DHCP server for automatic VoIP-phone provisioning, Firewall and Fail2ban for protection, plus call-center, auto-dialer, call-recording and statistics modules.

• A client may make offensive remarks to an employee — a recording lets you present it to the appropriate authority.
• Studying your own staff’s communication style — perhaps the main argument.
• Clients share personal experience and wishes — management can focus on real requests and act on them.
• You can build the right conversation script based on concrete examples.
• By listening to recordings you can track outages of your services.
• Statistics tools let a manager analyse call reports.
• Automatic recording of selected directions rules out missing a customer request; you can always compare the employee’s and the client’s version of a specific issue.

• You can start with 15 simultaneous calls on the Alvis-GW-2E1-L model.
• Grow to the Alvis-GW-2E1-DLX with 30 simultaneously recorded calls.
• Upgrade to the Alvis-GW-2x2E1-DLX with 60 simultaneously recorded calls.
• Load balancing and automatic redundancy across several Elastix servers and several Alvis gateways.
• A stock configuration — nothing to "code on top", proven software: Alvis is a SIP-E1 gateway based on Asterisk; Elastix is an IP-PBX based on Asterisk; Asterisk is an Open Source telephony system.
• If the Elastix server is unavailable, thanks to multiple routing the Alvis gateway sends the call straight to the PBX E1 stream — clients can still reach you.
• Advanced statistics and call monitoring in the Elastix IP-PBX.

• A ready solution at Alvis-GW-2E1 prices.
• The Elastix 2.5 IP-PBX is free; with a virtual machine you don’t need to buy an extra server.
• Alvis is made in Russia — we support the import-substitution programme. We have worked with E1 for over 12 years.
• GarantPlus helps configure this solution at no extra charge — it is part of the basic Alvis setup.
• A 5-year warranty on the solution; you can take it for a trial — there is a free 1-month testing programme.
• The recording solution can be combined with the PBX-modernization solution: save on long distance and unite PBXs in different cities.
• Also available: E1 redundancy over SIP, long-distance optimization, PBX numbering-plan expansion, uniting offices into a single system and fixed-mobile convergence (FMC).